I have been sick for well over a week now. I called in sick to work which is very unlike me and I have been moving through a myriad of symptoms: muscle aches, chills, fever, sore throat, cough, abdominal pain. A friend at work wrote to me and said that people were falling ill there and missing work as well.
Of course, I returned for my stint as the Christmas worker and we were busy, for sure. Our schedules were full, and the phone calls never ceased. The people I worked with seemed well enough, and I tried to keep my secretions to myself. B, our fearless leader, dropped by and told me not to come near him. My response was that I never come near him and never want to be near him anyhow. Still he tried to coax me into eating our free lunch. "I didn't buy Chinese food because of you, so you have to eat what I brought."
Today, a few other clinicians returned and I was amazed to see that they were just as ill as I. Their coughs sounded the same and they were hoarse as well. The clientele found my speaking voice hilarious, especially on the phone and it made me laugh too. I do believe we have seen and been hit by a variation of the flu or some mutation of it that renders the immunizations useless. I actually saw it in others before I got sick, and recognized the subtle change in presentation.
The illness has taken its toll on me and finally I agreed to start on antibiotics because my cough is getting worse and not better. This evening while chatting with JSN, I laughed, then coughed, then vomited. Ew, too much information. Still I stand outside myself and wonder what this illness will wreak on the community. Our schedules were packed today, as were our other centers and they started to turf their patients to us. I wonder if this upsurge in viral illness will be monitored in some way.
Still, I remain cheerful. People were in vile moods on Christmas day and our medical assistants were at each other's throats. In between seeing patients, and dealing with lots of issues, as well as having one sick little baby to manage all day, I had to referee disputes and upsetnness in staff members. And strangely, I was unperturbed.
Today I worked with some favorite colleagues and got a gift of George's famous salsa from A. (NB and I are thrilled but now we need chips.) We worked hard today through difficult scenarios and still took some brief interludes to laugh and cough together. I made everyone drink a lot of water.
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